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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24065527">howling ghosts, they reappear</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_hera/pseuds/and_hera'>and_hera</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon-Typical Eye Trauma, Elias Is Here For Precisely One Line But He Doesn't Deserve The Tag, F/F, Hair Dyeing, Melanie Has A Knife And Is A Lesbian, Piercings, Rebellion, The Author Not-So-Subtly Alludes To Desolation!Tim, fuck elias, no beta we die like archive assistants, violence?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:54:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,778</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24065527</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_hera/pseuds/and_hera</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Melanie didn’t think she would be the type to fall in love. Not because she didn’t want to be in a relationship, but because she was simply too busy to bring herself to put in the effort.<br/>And then, she met Georgie Barker. She met Georgie Barker during one of the most stressful, horrifying times of her life, and she fell in love with her anyway.</p><p>or, Melanie King's story isn't a simple one, but she grows along the way.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Basira Hussain &amp; Melanie King, Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Melanie King &amp; Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Melanie King &amp; Tim Stoker, Sasha James/Tim Stoker (mentioned)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>howling ghosts, they reappear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisyjohnsons/gifts">daisyjohnsons</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>first of all, I LOVE MELANIE KING SHES SO ICONIC AND SEXY MA'AM LET ME KISS YOU<br/>second of all, watch the half of it on netflix!! it's a beautiful movie and i absolutely loved it and got some inspiration for this fic from it so please watch it<br/>and finally, this fic is dedicated to anna, my best friend, my best bitch, and i love her SO much so!! this is for her!! angry lesbian with knives!!!!! i love you babe i hope you have the bestest day and i hope this is a good gift &lt;3</p><p>you can yell at me on twitter @lcvelaces, and title is taken from king and lionheart by of monsters and men, aka i'm going fucking feral guys</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Melanie King is an angry person. This is a fact. This is known.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>known (or Known, depending on who you ask) is that Melanie King also knows how to bite her tongue. Sometimes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, during her first therapy session, that is what she does. She bites her tongue, and she bides her time, and she does not trust this woman sitting across from her. Is she from the Web? Her voice does sound awfully like Helen’s- is it a trap from the Spiral, looping her into one horrible, endless conversation?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Melanie,” the therapist says, “are you alright? Can you hear me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie can.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you sit up? The way you’re sitting can’t be comfortable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie can. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, that’s fine. You can stay that way. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie is </span>
  <em>
    <span>fine</span>
  </em>
  <span>, thank you, she’s only here because Georgie fucking Barker said it might be a good idea but all it’s doing is stressing her out, all it’s doing is making her more worried. “Miss Jung.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can call me Celia, if you like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Miss Jung. How did you become a therapist?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celia Jung is a well known therapist, apparently. Georgie doesn’t see her, but knows of her through friends or something. Celia Jung is thirty-seven years old; Celia Jung is white with dark hair that just brushes past her shoulders and smile lines around her eyes and on her forehead. She has a husband and three sons. She is kind, apparently. Melanie is sure that she wasn’t planning on talking about herself during this session, but she takes it in stride.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve always liked people,” Celia begins. “Helping others comes naturally to me. I wanted to be a doctor when I was young, or a teacher, or something of that sort. I took a psychology class in high school, and I fell in love.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fell in love?” Melanie snaps. “With a subject? Alright.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celia tilts her head. “Melanie,” she begins, “why are you upset?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not,” Melanie says on instinct.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celia writes something down, since she cannot record it. Melanie isn’t upset about that. She knows that if something is recorded, the Eye will always find it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Is Celia with the Eye? Melanie adds it to the ever-growing list in her mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What would you like to get out of these sessions?” Celia asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Understanding that isn’t Knowing. Freedom. Quiet, something she doesn’t know anymore, not since she can hear blood rushing in her ears nonstop nowadays.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Melanie says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celia nods, writes something down again. “Okay,” she says. “Do you want to find out?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie says simply, "Yes."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Melanie has always known she likes girls. It isn’t a groundbreaking thing. Really, it's one of the simpler aspects of herself. However, her breath still catches every time she sees a beautiful girl, and she isn’t sure that she will ever stop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This happened when Melanie set her eyes on Georgie Barker.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Georgina Barker is a beautiful woman. She’s tall, much taller than Melanie (this isn’t much of a feat, considering Melanie’s very short stature), and her shoulders are broad, her skin a deep brown and her hair long dark curls. She smiles a lot, and her voice is pretty, and she is good at talking. She should be a storyteller, Melanie told her one day, and not just about ghosts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What, and come tell tales for your Institute?” Georgie had joked in return, and Melanie had responded immediately “</span>
  <em>
    <span>No</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Which led to a whole other conversation, one in which Melanie vaguely alluded to why she needs therapy in the first place. That was a long night, and there was ice cream. Melanie still has a chocolate stain on her favorite t-shirt, but she can’t bring herself to mind. It reminds her of Georgie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie met Georgie at the Institute, actually, because apparently Georgie and Jon go way back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>We dated</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Georgie explains one night, late, a little tipsy, </span>
  <em>
    <span>but it didn’t last long. We both realized pretty quickly we weren’t meant to be together like that, me mostly because I realized I wasn’t entirely into boys, him because he realized he wasn’t entirely into girls.) </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>So you just stayed friends, then? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Melanie replies.) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yeah. And we share custody of the Admiral. We hadn’t really talked for a few months until the whole murder thing, but now Jon demands to see him every now and then.</span>
  </em>
  <span>) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m surprised he lets a cat near his precious statements.</span>
  </em>
  <span>) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>I feel like you would be less surprised if you knew Jon in college</span>
  </em>
  <span>.) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, tell me everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>.) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Georgie had an orange cat in her arms with an odd design of white on him, and she had been in a sloppy blue shirt with what appeared to be coffee stains on the collar. Melanie had tripped over her own feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie hadn’t felt much besides anger anger anger then, so it was surprising to have another feeling in the mix. Later, of course, when the fucking bullet was out of her leg, she understands why. Some feelings even the Slaughter can't touch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie didn’t think she would be the type to fall in love. She crushed on a girl who worked with Ghost Hunt UK for a few weeks, but it didn’t last long. She was a late-night-hookup, nice-talking-to-you-see-you-never type. Not because she didn’t want to be in a relationship, but because she was simply too busy to bring herself to put in the effort.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then, she met Georgie Barker. She met Georgie Barker during one of the most stressful, horrifying times of her life, and she fell in love with her anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Personally, love and fear are a little too close for Melanie’s taste. Who’s to say the Eye can’t take Georgie and Watch her too closely until Georgie loses it and then get a double dose of fear, from both Georgie herself and Melanie? Who's to say the Eye doesn't like secondhand fear?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>No, it can’t</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Georgie says during a different late night, not tipsy this time. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t get scared, anymore. It’s a long story.</span>
  </em>
  <span>) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>What does that even mean? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Melanie asks, taken aback.) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>It means, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Georgie says sadly, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m afraid that no one you know hasn’t been touched by the Fears. Including me.</span>
  </em>
  <span>)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Love and fear and passion and anger. Melanie has always felt too much for her own good.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Melanie’s story is not one of happy endings. It isn’t one where everyone gets what they want. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This is news to no one, because in a world full of monsters and entities that control the monsters and clowns that are actually mannequins wearing skin that is not theirs and bosses that can see everything, there aren’t many happy stories. The world actively does not like people and there is absolutely nothing to be done about that bit, at least. Sure, you can delay the apocalypse and learn the stories and, in Jon’s case, become a not-human that eats statements to survive and pretend that you aren’t in love with someone who is also becoming a not-human, but his type of monster is into isolating himself from the rest of society (poor Martin).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>God, Melanie doesn’t make fun of Jon enough. Imagine having the audacity to bitch and moan about some guy, probably just to cover up that you are attracted to him, be an absolute ass to this guy because he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>nice</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and then finally when you stop repressing every emotion to the max you realize “oh wait I like him,” and </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>is when the guy goes full supernatural-level of isolation. And now you mope about him to tape recorders. What a fucking nerd. Melanie isn’t the bravest, but she didn’t do </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(<em>Okay, wait</em></span>
  <span>, Georgie says during one girls night. Basira and Daisy are with them, Daisy with her hair newly cropped short, Melanie with her hair freshly bleached platinum. <em>W</em></span>
  <em>
    <span>hat is Martin like? I’ve never met him and I’ve heard so much about him.</span>
  </em>
  <span>) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh my God,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Basira says, </span>
  <em>
    <span>listen. I’ve never met him, not really. Talked to him a few times in passing- well, not lately, obviously. But he’s fine, I guess. I know him mostly from-</span>
  </em>
  <span>)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>Jon</span>
  </em>
  <span>, all four women say in unison, and burst into laughter. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Listen</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Georgie says, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Jon lived with me for a few months because he was literally accused of murder and he spent half of that time telling me I didn’t make tea as good as this Martin fellow. Who is he? How did someone manage to turn his head?</span>
  </em>
  <span>)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>Only some guy working for Peter Lukas, avatar of the Lonely</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Daisy says dryly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Which means we haven’t heard from Martin in weeks, and Jon is extra pissy about it. He literally chose the guy whose new job is to be alone to have a crush on.</span>
  </em>
  <span>)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh my God.</span>
  </em>
  <span>)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This isn’t a love story. This is a story about the world, and that world has love in it, and that love is not significant in any way. The Fears don’t care who you love, unless they can exploit it. This isn’t a love story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie King fell in love, and that is just a thing that happens in a world like this. And now she has to deal with it, deal with hearing Georgie Barker’s voice every day and never seeing her, not anymore, deal with stumbling around a new apartment and worrying every day that it will be her last, deal with listening to how Georgie Barker’s voice lilts and tapers and is beautiful, is musical. Deal with singing with the one she loves, listening to stories and learning to read with her fingers, her scarred and dirty fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And, unsurprisingly, she finds that she doesn’t mind. She likes loving. She likes being loved. Georgie holds her hands and Melanie knows she will keep holding her hands until the world ends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(And she does.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There is a dress code at the Magnus Institute, unbeknownst to most. Of course, Elias never actually calls out the Archives for dressing badly, and the rules are very vague, but there is one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Melanie, angry and trapped, decides that fuck it, what can Elias do to her? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fire her</span>
  </em>
  <span>?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On her ninth day at the Magnus Institute, she dyes her hair bright pink. She had to bleach it first, because her hair was black before, and it looks very good, if she says so herself. Her hair is long, because her mother told her that curls don’t look good cut short, and she puts in every single earring she owns because maybe the Institute dress code may think earrings aren’t “appropriate” but she is </span>
  <em>
    <span>sure </span>
  </em>
  <span>she’s seen Elias wearing some stupid eye earring like a shitty emo teenager before, so fuck it. She wears her sloppiest t-shirt in clashing colors and earns a decent amount of looks, but she doesn’t give a shit anymore. If it pisses off Elias Bouchard, it’s a win.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And it </span>
  <em>
    <span>does </span>
  </em>
  <span>piss him off. He looks at her like it physically pains him, and she raises an eyebrow when she catches his eye. Elias looks away, and she grins something terrible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On her twenty-seventh day at the Magnus Institute, she cuts off eleven inches of hair, leaving it just past her ears, because her mother was wrong- she looks </span>
  <em>
    <span>great</span>
  </em>
  <span> with short hair. She dyes it a blue-green this time, and she gets a septum piercing, because it looks fucking sick. Melanie King has such little power here, has no way out, so she does every little thing she can to piss Elias off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He openly glares at her this time, now that he was finally accustomed to the pink, and he gives a pointed stare to her nose. She flips him off. Not like cameras work in this place, anyway. Not like he can do anything about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On her forty-second day at the Magnus Institute, she bleaches her hair and cuts her own bangs. She does this sitting criss cross on Elias Bouchard’s desk. Grinning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He storms in. “Melanie,” he says, voice exasperated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stares him dead in the eyes as she uses scissors from his desk drawer to snip a long lock of now blonde hair right off. The hair falls to the desk, on his folders. It is the most fun thing Melanie has done in a long time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait,” she says, voice light, “I totally stole your scissors! I’m so sorry, Elias, I meant to just use them to open the bleach and I forgot. Here you go!” She hands the scissors to him, and he takes them like she’s handing him a dead spider. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then, from the pocket of her too-tight-to-be-considered-appropriate leggings pocket (that she sewed in herself), she pulls a knife. It’s not her favorite, but it’s the only one that fits in her leggings, so it will do. She takes it upon herself to grab another strand of hair she’s marked for bangs and shears it off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And she continues for another hour, making sure to get the hair even, but not bothering to use a mirror. She holds Elias's gaze the whole time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she saunters out with a “we should do this again sometime!”, she is met with Daisy and Basira, waiting just outside the room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you kill him this time?” Daisy says, matter-of-fact, looking at Melanie’s knife still in her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice hair,” Basira says, also looking at the knife and probably noticing the lack of blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did not kill him,” Melanie says. “I bleached and cut my hair. On Elias’s desk. With my knife.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Basira grins, an open-mouthed smile she rarely lets out. Daisy high-fives her. “Fuckin’ badass,” Daisy says, her smile a snarl. “Keep it up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They walk back to the Archives, and Melanie feels eyes on her, so she flips off the general direction they’re coming from. She tells herself that she isn’t scared of him anymore.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On her forty-ninth day at the Magnus Institute, she is approached by Timothy Stoker.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim has always been something of a mystery to Melanie. He’s angry, oh so angry, but in a different way than her. She’s violent and carries knives and has a chart she rotates through of ways to murder her boss. Tim- Tim isn’t that kind of angry. He lashes out, sure, but he laughs in a way that unnerves her. He’s got some kind of fire in him, and she is never sure that one day, he won’t just burst into flames.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Timothy Stoker walks to her desk (the one that’s right next to the desk no one touches, the one that’s right next to the desk with colorful sticky notes all over it with looping handwriting and a pair of dusty glasses left haphazardly on the corner) (was it the real one’s glasses? or was it the fake one’s? Melanie didn’t know either of them well enough to tell) and his face is calm, but who knows how long that will last. Melanie knows better than anyone else how quickly a peaceful facade can split.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s up?” she asks, carefully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was wondering,” he replies, equally as careful, “where you got your piercing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” says Melanie. “Georgie did it for me. She’s done it before. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim shrugs. “Seemed to piss off Big Boss Elias. Wanted to give it a shot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie hums. “I could always do one for you. Get stuff from Georgie. Where do you want it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dunno. Didn’t think about it. Same as yours? Maybe around the side of my nose instead of the septum or whatever it’s called?” Tim shrugs again. “I already have my ears pierced. Don’t really care.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie nods once, decisive. “Alright. We’ll do it. In Elias’s office.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim raises an eyebrow, but his eyes light up. “I mean, it’s not like he can fire us,” he says, and a smile creeps across his face. Melanie has to look twice, because it isn’t a hollow, bitter smile. It’s happy, for once. Excited.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She points at him. “You get it. I’ll ask Georgie for supplies and, you know, the actual mechanics of it. I doubt you would want some girl you’ve never met piercing your nose.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not like I like you much better,” Tim fires back, but not in his pissed voice, so Melanie stands up from her chair and walks to the break room, elbowing him as she passes. “Hey, Melanie!” he says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stops, turns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks,” Tim says. “I appreciate it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie shrugs. “No problem,” she says. “Just what coworkers who are literally trapped in their jobs do for each other, yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie salutes, and spins back around and heads into the break room, phone in hand. She texts Georgie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she looks back, Tim is standing at the empty, dusty desk, not moving. He is quiet. Melanie watches him knock twice on the wood, and watches him not hesitate to walk away, after disturbing nothing but dust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie wonders what Sasha was to Tim. She wonders how much Tim must hurt.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Melanie,” Celia Jung says, “you seem much less upset today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Melanie agrees, because she can’t just say that her boss and coworker took a bullet out of her leg that was making her eternally angry and hungry for blood the other day and now she's fine without sounding insane. “I’m sorry. Last week I was having a really rough time with work, and it’s gotten a bit better. Not great, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you want to-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not going to talk about it. We can work through the rest of my shitty childhood and adult trauma, but not work, yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celia blinks. “Okay,” she says. “I’m glad you’re more amenable than last week. I’m sorry work had been giving you trouble.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine,” Melanie huffs. “Nothing to be done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you don’t mind my asking,” Celia says, “who is waiting for you outside? I don’t remember her from last week.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie thinks of a way to phrase it. “She's a friend,” she decides on, “the person who convinced me to come here in the first place. I think she’s making sure I stay the whole time, this week.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A friend?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie rolls her eyes. “I’m into her and she might be a little into me, but nothing has happened yet. And yes, I’m a lesbian, and yes, I’m sure the loads of repression from the greater part of my teenage years has to do with my inner psyche. Are we going to get this show on the road, Celia? I’d rather find out if you’re a shitty therapist now, or an evil monster, than drag it out longer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celia Jung stares for a moment, and then she smiles, and she does not write anything down. “Okay,” she says. “Let’s get this show on the road, then.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Regarding Georgie Barker:</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie has never been a writer, but she thinks she could write something beautiful about her if she tried. Melanie has never been a dancer, but she wants to dance with her and step on her toes. Melanie has never been a talker, but she wants to sit down and talk with her, to hear her and be with her until she knows her better than she knows herself. Melanie wants to know her, and to be known in return, and isn’t that a scary thing on several levels?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie’s boss is someone who seems to know and Know everything ever, and she wants to let this woman know her. She wants to let Georgie be someone she loves. It’s interesting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie is an angry person, of course. She isn’t a bright, smart, lovely person. She’s pissed off and she carries knives and she murders monsters and gets shot by ghosts. She doesn’t think too much. She’s all instinct, all death and bone and blind rage. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And you would think that Georgie is not, but her fire is just quieter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Georgie Barker is a strong, beautiful woman with just as much anger in her, but she doesn’t let it out as easily. She writes scathing emails and texts and she tells Melanie </span>
  <em>
    <span>exactly </span>
  </em>
  <span>what she’s thinking, nothing held back, because she may have no fear but she has plenty of every other emotion. She isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. She tells Melanie that she can’t get away with being a bitch while with her, and Melanie knows she’s right. She hadn’t meant to be a bitch, it had just been a bad day, but Georgie is right, and she fixes it. Communication. Melanie can do it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Georgie Barker is a collection of pieces and Melanie thinks that one day, if she can find all of them, she will finally see her, and that’s the day she will not be able to turn back. Logically, she should stop looking now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She does not stop looking. She keeps searching for Georgie, tidbits of early life and college years and laughing about Jon’s shitty band and their failed relationship. She keep searching for Georgie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Regarding Georgie Barker:</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie King is a mess of a woman, a bit angry, a lot scarred. Melanie King has never known herself to be gentle, and that isn’t what she wants with Georgie- she thinks she ought to want to be gentle, but what she wants is to be herself. To be a little bit angry and a little more sad than she originally thought she was and a little more happy than she ever thought was possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Georgie Barker doesn’t like Melanie for being gentle. She likes Melanie for being herself. Or, that’s what she’s said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Melanie might be on her way to believing it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sasha James was two different people. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>First Sasha was tall, was funny, was bright and brilliant and beautiful. Second Sasha was average height, was clever, was sly and smart and social. First Sasha was a person. Second Sasha was an echo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Timothy Stoker does not know this. He believes the echo was the person, doesn’t know the real Sasha James. Timothy Stoker only knows a woman with stolen skin and not quite human eyes that he didn’t notice until too late. Timothy Stoker only knows half-aborted gestures to bump Sasha’s shoulder with his own because she’s no longer only half an inch shorter than him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie King did not know anything about either Sasha James, but she remembers what they looked like.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tim,” Melanie says one day, standing next to Tim’s desk. He isn’t on his computer; he’s playing some mindless game on his phone and he has headphones in. Melanie knocks on his desk. “Tim.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looks up, takes the earbuds out. “Melanie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie sighs. “Sasha was tall,” she says. “She had curly dark hair and brown eyes. Her voice was pretty high, and she was very smart. She helped me after I gave my first statement.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim’s face is not noticeably paler, and his eyes are not bright, but his hands are shaking. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know much about the Not-Sasha,” Melanie says, “and I don’t know much about Sasha either. She was nice to me. She gave me tea after I told my story about the woman with the Stranger. She was sweet. She told me Jon was strange, but that you get used to him. That he isn’t always a dick.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was wrong there,” Tim says, and his voice is barely hoarse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie half-smiles. “Yeah,” she agrees. “I’m sorry. That she’s gone. That no one talks about her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one knew her,” Tim says. “Not like Martin and Jon and I did. And Martin never talks about her and Jon is the reason she’s gone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie doesn’t argue. “Were you two-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Tim says. “Not really. We- I think, before- </span>
  <em>
    <span>God</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He runs a hand through his hair. “Before she </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I think we were something. I think we were supposed to end up together, in the end. But we didn’t. And she wasn’t. Wasn’t a fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>person</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie puts her hand on Tim’s, the one resting on the desk. He look up at her, and if he’s surprised by the touch he doesn’t show it. “Tim,” she says, “I know you’re angry. You know I’m angry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim nods. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you going to use your anger </span>
  <em>
    <span>for</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim looks at her, really looks at her, and Melanie feels like his hand might be heating up under hers. She doesn’t move, even when it feels like she’s on fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to be fucking righteous,” Tim says. “I just want to get out of here. And I think I will, soon. I think you know that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie does.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I’m going to fucking end it. The Unknowing. Whatever it is. And I’m going to end with it, and things will be alright. Got that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie does.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t try to tell me that I should use my anger for something </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Tim says, and his eyes are fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not,” Melanie says. “I’m just saying that I get it. And that I’m sorry Sasha is gone. That she wasn’t who she should have been.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim looks away. “We were supposed to be like a story,” he says. “A five season show where the main couple doesn’t get together until the end so ratings don’t go down.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sometimes stories get cut off, though,” Melanie says, and Tim rolls his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t romanticize it. She was fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>murdered </span>
  </em>
  <span>and no one remembers her but me and Martin and Jon. Not really. Just-” he sighs. “I’m angry, and no one seems to understand why, and I have no reason to tell them. I have nothing making me explain myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me too,” Melanie says. “Sometimes it feels like all I know how to do is to be angry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” Tim says, “when you threaten Elias every day with a knife, I appreciate the anger, Melanie King.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And when you fuck with Jon because he deserves it, I appreciate the anger, Tim Stoker.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim takes his hand and properly grasps Melanie’s hand, shakes it. “Thank you,” he says, “for telling me about Sasha.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And thank you,” Melanie says, “for making me learn how to do piercings. Now I can give myself more. Speaking of, how do you feel about me giving you a piercing in an hour?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In Elias’s office?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sitting on his desk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds like a fucking plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melanie smiles, and Tim smiles back. It’s closer to his cruel smile than his happy one, but Melanie can’t find it in herself to mind.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Melanie’s story is not one of happy endings. It isn’t one where everyone gets what they want. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim dies without forgiveness and without forgiving. Tim dies pissed off at the world, and Melanie can only hope that he’ll be able to put his anger down wherever he is now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The End gets everyone, eventually.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The End doesn’t get Daisy, though, and Daisy comes back, and she mentions at a girls night that </span>
  <em>
    <span>maybe Jon isn’t all the dickwad we originally thought he was</span>
  </em>
  <span> and is laughed at and with and Melanie missed her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The End doesn’t get the rest of them. Every other entity does. The Eye taking Basira, just a little, and the Hunt taking Daisy back for good, and the Lonely taking Martin, maybe?, and the Eye only tightening its grip on Jon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Melanie gets out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought that when she collected all the pieces of the woman she loves and laid them out and looked at them, truly looked at them, she would See Georgie. She would See Georgie Barker, unabridged, and she would kiss her and she would never leave her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And in a way, she does. However, Melanie no longer has functioning eyes, so. It’s not the exact type of sight she originally expected. It’s okay though, because she </span>
  <em>
    <span>does </span>
  </em>
  <span>still kiss Georgie, and she still doesn’t plan to leave her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This isn’t a love story. This isn’t a love story. Melanie falls in love, and Melanie is happy that she has fallen in love, but it is a story about the world. It is a story about a world of demons and things and two people falling in love is insignificant. This isn’t a love story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Melanie King falls anyway, falls as she walks through a world that is nothing but darkness and she doesn’t see the orange-and-white cat walking around her feet and trips, falls when she hears Jon’s voice at the door after expecting to never hear him again, falls falls falls when she hears Georgie’s voice singing from the shower. This isn’t a love story. But there is love anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Melanie King is holding Georgie Barker’s hand when the world comes to a crashing end. Just like she hoped.</span>
</p>
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